Thibaut Courtois has returned to Madrid. He has landed tonight at the Barajas Airport after José Ángel Sánchez, general manager of the club, finalized the negotiation with Chelsea. In London, Mateo Kovacic has been on loan for one season. The 26-year-old Belgian goalkeeper has signed for the next six seasons and Madrid will present him this Thursday at the Bernabéu at 13.00. The hiring of Kepa by Chelsea - this Wednesday morning the 80 million clause was deposited - facilitated the departure of Courtois who ended his contract with the English club in June 2019 and had already expressed his will not to renew. In this way, Abramovich does not lose money - from January he could have negotiated to go free to any team - and he pocketed 40 million.

The 26-year-old Belgian goalkeeper will wear the white shirt and fulfill his desire to return to Madrid, where his children live. His first official match could be, things of destiny and morbid, against his ex team, the one that made him grow. Madrid and Atlético face next Wednesday in Tallinn in the European Super Cup. He is the second goalkeeper who signs the white club so far this summer. In June he made official the hiring of Andriy Lunin, a 19-year-old Ukrainian. That same age is what Courtois had when he came to Atlético on loan from Chelsea.

Technically he is very good under sticks, Courtois is also very agile and coordinated despite his height (measures 1.99). The Genk signed him as a left-back when he was a child, but that first year, having no goalkeeper, he had to put himself under sticks. When after a tournament they chose him as the best goalkeeper of the championship, he decided not to take off his gloves. In his family, by the way, the normal thing is to use his hands: his parents were volleyball professionals.

For weeks that Madrid had reached an agreement with him and so he moved to Keylor Navas during the preseason. In the white template there will be five goalkeepers: in addition to the Belgian, Navas and young Lunin, there are also Luca Zidane and Kiko Casilla. The latter are the main candidates to leave the club. Navas, who spoke with Madrid before the World Cup to negotiate a contract improvement (which ends in 2020), plans to continue.

sources: Real Madrid official media accounts